(Norway Spruce) Norway spruce. The commonest spruce in the general cultivation and the species most popularly known as the christmas tree. A large tree with orange or reddish brown, usually glabrous shoots. Leaves 1-2.5cm long, shining dark green, densely clothing the upper sides of the brachlets,pectinate below. Cones cylindrical, 10-15cm long. This species is extensively used for  reforestation and the white or cream- coloured wood for a wide variety of articles. The young shoots  and leaves are the basis of spruce beer. Widely distributed in the wild over N and C Europe, often in large forests.

 A dense, compact, dwarf bush developing into a somewhat billowy, rounded, flat-topped dome with conspicuous, radially arranged, sea-green leaves. A specimen in the SHHG attained 50cm x1.2m after 30 years. One of the most popular dwarf forms.

 (Norway Spruce) Needle like folage is dark green, grows about 2.5 cm a year. New foliage is yellow-green. Great as a speciman shrub.Country of Origin: Holland.A globose dwarf plant,flat-topped with nest-like depression in the middle.Needles dark green,very thin,2-5mm long,densely arranged and totally covering shoots.In ten years 30x45cm.Founbd before 1960 as a witches'broom on a specimen of 'Nidiformis' in the Nursery of F.J.Grootendorst and Sons,Netherlands.

A large, spreading bush or small tree with semi pendent branches which, even at early age, usually terminate in a precocious cone.A slow-growing cultivar that eventually forms a small pyramidal tree with stiff horizontally spreading to pendulous branches with the branch-tips of most shoots terminating in bright red,sometimes contorted cones.This occurs even on young plants resulting in an irregular growth pattern driven by the side shoots.In ten years 1.5-2x1-1.3m.Found before 1890 in forest near Uppsala,Sweden.

A nice weeping form similar to Pendula but neater tighter foliage.A weeping cultivar with an errect trunk,limp pendulous side branches and rich dark green needles.It needs stem-training when young.In ten years 2x1m.Raised as a seedling from'Inversa' by the nursery of A.Haller,Switzerland.

An unusual form usually seen as a large shrub with depressed branches. It is tall, less rigid and softer to the touch then 'Reflexa' There is a magnificent specimen, exceeding 100 years old, in the celebrated arboretum and garden at Kalmthout, Belgium.

Watson Brewer's weeping spruce. Perhaps the most beautiful of all spruces and one of the most popular of all the ornamental conifers. A small to medium-sized, broadly conical tree with spreading or decurved branches from which hang slender, tall-like branchlets, 1.8-2.5m long. Leaves to 3cm long, shining dark blue-green above,marked with 2 white bands beneath. Cones up to 10cm long, green at first, turning purple later.

 White spruce. A large tree on conical habit, with decurved branches, ascending at the tips. Leaves 4-angled, to 20mm long,glaucous-green,emitting a foetid odour when bruised, densely arranged and standing above the upper surfaces of the branchlets. Cones to 6cm long. A very hardy species, useful for planting in cold, exposed posotions.

A slow-growing, perfectly cone-shaped bush of dense,  compact habit with bright grass-green leaves. A deservedly popular cultivar, in 30 years making a pointed cone of symmetrical shape, 2m high by 1.2m at base. Originally  found in Canadian Rockies, near Alberta in 1904 by Dr J.G.Jack and Prof.Alfred Rehder of the Arnold Arboretum, Boston, USA.AM 1933.